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A Successful Catastrophe

This was a helpful rundown from the military perspective, Can America win a war in Syria? From what I understand, the Assad regime has chemical weaponry and President Obama is considering a “limited” strike, perhaps shooting missiles but sending no men on the ground.

The article above argued the high probability that such an attack would be a success; we could indeed target and destroy the weapons. Such a success, however, would also be a catastrophe. There is no way to explode explosive chemicals without an explosion of those chemicals. Or, we could destroy the storage facilities without destroying the weapons, but without troops to contain them, the weapons could be seized by other enemies, resulting in a different kind of catastrophe. To destroy the weapons without releasing the gas or the weapons themselves, we would need to occupy Syria for some time. That could give countries such as Russia and China a reason to ally against us, a conflict we don’t have the money for. Any of these three paths to “success” would be catastrophic.

The death of Christ, on the other hand, was a successful catastrophe. As the Nicene Creed affirms, the “Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made.” That Lord was crucified by men He created. The perfectly righteous One was condemned. The God of life laid down His life. It was a universal shock. The rocks cry out at the injustice. No other event in history was such a disaster.

But His catastrophic death was a success, accomplishing every objective against the serpent and sin. Christ fully propitiated God’s wrath against sinful men. He paid the price in full. He shut the mouth of the accuser. In Christ, we are declared righteous. In Christ, we are reconciled to God. In Christ, the dead are resurrected to eternal life. As we eat and drink at His Table, we remember the catastrophe and rejoice in the victory.